


An Irrational Dislike

by Ultra



Category: Firefly, Leverage
Genre: Ancestors, Back to the Future References, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Grumpy Eliot, Mistaken Identity, Outer Space, Parker Being Parker, Poor Nathan, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-18
Updated: 2011-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 00:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7779145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Leverage crew never expected to find themselves 500 years in the future, needing the help of a familiar looking man...</p>
<p>(Originally written for the Secret Agent challenge at Leverageland)</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Irrational Dislike

Nate was struggling to think straight through all the bickering going on around him. As if space travel wasn’t making him queasy enough, having Hardison and Eliot fighting with each other from their places in the pilot and co-pilot seats was a little too much. Honestly, he just wanted to land back on the safety of solid ground and get this whole thing figured out so they could go home, to the right planet and the right time.

“Boys, please!” called Sophie as she appeared on the bridge. “You’re giving me a headache and I was down by the engine room keeping Parker company,” she told them as she peered out through the plexiglass in front, “Why don’t we concentrate on getting this rust-bucket landed in one piece instead of arguing the toss over why we’re here... again?!” she told them, in full stern mother mode.

“Exactly what I was going to say,” Nate agreed with a nod, leaning heavily back against the lockers behind him now, and swallowing hard at the inevitable shift as they entered the gravitational pull of the planet named Persephone.

“Ooh, Nate,” the grifter sympathised. “Y’know, green really isn’t a good colour on you. Maybe you should sit down,” she advised, gesturing for him to go. “I’m sure I can keep an eye on these two.”

“We’re not kids, Soph,” Eliot growled at her, though his eyes never left the view ahead as he kept his concentration to the maximum. “And it’s not like I don’t have a point about this all being Hardison’s fault,” he started again.

“Hey, man, how was I supposed to know the car was a time machine?!” he complained loudly, though his gaze was fixed on the planet they were to land on as well, for fear of quite literally crashing and burning.

“It was a frickin’ DeLorean, Hardison!” the hitter argued with evident anger. “With a set of damn time dials on the dash. What did you think would happen when you broke 88 in that thing?”

“Even I knew that was a bad idea,” said Parker as she appeared up the steps from below, almost succeeding in making everybody jump.

How she had got from the engine room to that entranceway was anybody’s guess. They’d only had the ship a few days and for the most part they’d been getting parts and fixing it up so it would actually fly. That wasn’t so very more complicated than fixing the DeLorean had been after it literally crashed into the year 2517. Unfortunately, the engine was an easy fix, the flux capacitor was a whole other story.

“When we get the right parts, it’ll be cool,” the hacker insisted, when Eliot said even he couldn’t ‘geek’ his way out of this one.

The arguments appeared to be over now, as Sophie went to check on Nate, and Parker stood silently between the guys as they came in for a landing at the Eavesdown Docks. Concentration was needed, and there wasn’t room for error as hacker and hitter worked together and brought the small ship in smooth as anything.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Hardison grinned as he pushed the controls away and scooted the pilot’s chair back from the dash.

“Not bad,” Eliot agreed with a smile of his own, offering the hacker the usual high-five/fist bump combo.

Parker rushed off to tell Nate and Sophie they were landed safely and find out what happened next. She was getting a little ansty stuck inside the ship. She wanted fresh air and space to move around. She wanted people she could watch and a new place to explore.

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” the grifter was asking her man as she helped him to his feet.

“Sure, yeah,” Nate assured her. “Now we’re on solid ground, I’ll be fine,” he promised, just as Hardison and Eliot appeared behind a bouncing Parker.

“So, this contact you gotta go see,” said the hacker. “This is where you’ll find him,” he pointed to a blinking dot on the screen of the device he handed to Nate. “He should either have what we need or be able to point you in the right direction.”

Eliot was already expecting to go with the Mastermind, no questions asked. There was no telling what was out there on the planet named Persephone, what trouble might be waiting beyond the cargo bay doors.

“Okay, we’ll go now,” nodded Nate to the hitter. “The rest of you, stay on the ship, I don’t...”

“Noooo!” Parker immediately whined. “I wanna go with you!” she argued, bouncing up and down like Tigger on speed. “I wanna see what’s out there!”

Eliot rolled his eyes at her behaviour, as Nate looked to Sophie for her opinion.

“Nah, mama,” Hardison was telling the blonde thief. “You can’t just-”

“Okay,” interrupted Nate. “I don’t want you bouncing around in here driving everybody crazy while we’re gone and I certainly don’t want you out there alone, so you can come with me and Eliot,” he told Parker, even as Hardison’s mouth dropped open to comically wide proportions.

“Maybe we should all go,” suggested Sophie, even as the three began to walk away. “I mean, I’m the grifter here, I could probably charm this guy and-”

“No, no cons on this,” Nate argued, looking back at her, his hand to his head that already ached with the pressure of trying to figure out how to get them out of another fine mess they’d been landed in too easily. “We don’t know this guy, this is not our place or our time... We just, we have to get what we need and get out, before this gets worse,” he explained, trying not to get too mad at her.

It wasn’t Sophie’s fault they were stuck here in the future, it wasn’t anybody’s really, except for maybe Hardison’s fault, but apportioning blame didn’t solve anything. Striding away, Nate just expected Eliot and Parker to follow, and thankfully they did.

“You stay where I can see you,” the hitter told the little blonde as she skipped along beside him. “We’re not losing anybody on this just because you wanna go snooping, you hear me?”

“Whatever!” Parker rolled her eyes as she followed Nate out through the cargo bay doors, allowing Eliot to cover from the back.

They passed through the docks and busy market place with the mastermind constantly checking the map device, and both hitter and thief taking in their surroundings, though from very different view points - she was trying to figure on what she could steal, he was always on the look out for any threats.

Another group of three people came towards them. Eliot expected an attack, though it never came. His shoulder was jostled by the biggest of the men, a bearded thug that sneered at them. The hitter glared back, eyes travelling over the man in the brown coat and the woman beside him. All three were armed and at least two were former soldiers - they had very distinctive walks. Thankfully, they started no trouble, and Eliot’s attention returned to Nate and Parker, and where they were headed.

“Right, here we are,” said the mastermind, gesturing to the alley way up ahead, and showing the two behind him the screen that had them right on top of the blinking red dot where their contact lived and worked.

“You want me to..?” Eliot gestured that maybe he should go first, but Nate shook his head.

“No, I think it’s safer if we keep Parker between the two of us,” he advised, pushing the electronic device deep inside his coat pocket. “Besides, how bad can this Badger character really be?”

Almost instantly, Nate regretted that remark as he strolled into the ‘office’ and was confronted with an all too familiar face behind the desk. It would be difficult to say who’s eyes went wider as Parker and Eliot followed him in and made the same realisation, all three members of Team Leverage coming to such a sudden halt that they ran into each others backs.

“Well, you must be Nathan Ford,” sad Badger, pushing his chair back and dropping his feet to the ground. “Can’t say as you look exactly like I thought. Gotta admire your taste in company though,” he said, practically leering at Parker.

Eliot stepped in front of the blonde instantly and growled.

“Back off, Sterling!” he said in reflex, not even thinking about the fact that they were five hundred years in the future and this actually could not be the James Sterling they knew and loathed in their own time.

“Oi, where’d you hear that name?” asked Badger looking startled. “Nobody uses that name. Nobody knows it!” he insisted, slamming his hand on the desk as he stood up fast.

“Your... grandfather and I,” said Nate carefully. “We were old friends,” he smiled, in a way he hoped was amiable.

Grandfather wasn’t exactly accurate. Ancestor would be more true, but much harder to explain here and now. It was easier to bend the truth and hope the descendant of Sterling bought it. His predecessor wasn’t the brightest man ever, so there was hope.

“Dear old Grandpa Jim, eh?” replied Badger, rubbing his chin, his whole demeanour shifting once again. “Better sit down then, seein’ as you know the family and all,” he grinned almost too much as chairs were provided for his guests.

Eliot shook his head at the guard who offered him a seat, opting to stand behind the chairs Nate and Parker sat on now. There he stood on guard, arms folded across his chest, looking like he meant business, mostly because he did. Badger rolled his eyes at the behaviour but didn’t say a word. Something told him the muscle was not to be messed with.

“A friend of mine told me you were the man to see if I needed certain... supplies,” said Nate then, handing Badger a piece of paper on which Hardison had noted down the components he would need to patch the flux capacitor back together.

“Looks reasonable,” said the businessman, adjusting his hat. “’Course, these things come at a price.”

Parker made an unimpressed noise of indigence.

“We have a butt-load of money,” she told him with the biggest eye roll she could muster. “It’s so not a problem.”

“Good for you, sweetheart,” said Badger with a wink, even as Eliot glared at the blonde for saying such things, “but money I got. Might be something I’d like more, something fine family friends as yourselves might be able to handle,” he said as he eyed the hitter with equal parts respect and distaste. “Ever heard of a man named Malcolm Reynolds?”

Nate knew he had never heard of such a man but probably should have given the way Badger asked. He steered into safe water by being non-committal.

“He has a reputation,” he said simply, waiting to see where the Sterling lookalike was going with this.

“He does at that,” nodded Badger, pocketing the piece of paper Nate had handed to him, “but him and his pathetic band of misfits aren’t completely unstoppable,” he noted. “You track down his rust-bucket of a ship, stop them from completing their latest happy little venture they seem so set on, and I'll give you my very best discount on what you need,” he promised with a grin, as he patted his pocket where the list resided.

Five minutes later, Nate was exiting Badger’s office with Parker and Eliot at his heels, already on comms to Hardison and Sophie back on the ship.

“Okay, folks, you heard the man,” he said as he strolled away. “Let’s go steal a Firefly!”


End file.
